Scars to be healed (Yuuki X OC)
by Bl00dh00dz
Summary: Aiza Kanashira, otherwise known as Arashi in SAO, loses everything to the floor 27 boss. 3 years after Aincrad was cleared and the wounds still aren't healed. Aiza then discovers a player in ALO nicknamed the Absolute Sword. He starts to take a liking to her and starts to follow her around. What secrets will he unravel about her?And will he finally be able to overcome his loss?
1. prolouge

[23 November 2023]

[Floor 27 Labrynth of Aincrad]

The sound of the closing gate rang through the boss room as a loud _thud!_.

Arashi, who was equipped with a black and red coat similar to Kirito's coat and plated silver armour underneath that shined like pearls, drew his jet black longsword and held it in a preoperative stance.

The twin headed boss roared with intimidation as blue flames lit the dark room. The Assault Team which consisted of members of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Divine Dragon Alliance and various other clearing guilds prepared themselves for the fight.

"He's initiating pattern A! Tanks, move forward!" Commanded Asuna, the sub leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath. On command, heavily armoured men with massive axes and maces rushed in front of the boss.

Arashi obviously knew his place in this fight.He was ordered to take care of the bosses supporting mobs.So when the boss roared once again at 75%, the boss spawned mossy stone golems holding what seemed to be hammers made out of rocks.

Arashi rushed at the nearest golem and activated the one-handed sword skill -Horizontal Square-,quickly disposing of the stone golem, who burst into thousands of particles.

He continued to swiftly rid the room of the mobs until the boss roared for what Arashi wished was the final time. Unfortunately, the bosses heath bar was at 25%,so they just had to push a little more.

At that moment, it was as if time itself had frozen, as multiple pieces of rocks hit Merle pushing her around as if she was a ragdoll. She was pushed left, then right, then left again then finally, a abnormally large piece slammed into Merle pushing her backwards and hit the wall.

"No...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!"Those were the only words Arashi could say as he ran towards his sisters side using the bosses post skill delay as his window.

"Here comes his AoE attack! All units retreat!" Asuna commanded once again. Arashi dashed out of the AoE attacks vacinity frantically to avoid it, and he successfully did. However in a unfortunate series of events, his sister, Merle who was a member of the Divine Dragon Alliance, was hit and stunned by one of the remaining golems.

"Merle!" Arashi screamed in terror hopelessly, as the boss lifted his left leg and stomped it down ferociously as rubble spilled around the affected area of the AoE, which Merle was in.

She was hit by stones left and right, pushing her in almost all directions possible. She was then slammed into the wall by a large rock.

"NO...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!" Those were the only things Arashi could scream as he ran to Merle's side. "Merle, please... PLEASE NO!!!!"Arashi let go of his longsword and put his left hand on Merle's right shoulder.

Merle put her left hand onto Arashi's chest, saying weakly:"Live..."Before bursting into particles the same way the golem did.

Arashi's eyes widened in shock and sadness, he just heard his sisters final words before she died."No...no...NO!!!!! WHY! JUST WHY! WHY WOULD... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Arashi clawed his head with his gloved hands and screamed.

In the distance, Kirito looked at Arashi who knelt down and cried. He approached the weeping Arashi and put his free hand onto Arashi's right shoulder.

Kirito was practically speechless. Even though he had experience losing people like Kopel and The Moonlit Black Cats,but he had no words of advice to comfort Arashi.

Arashi stood up slowly with his legs shaking, one look in his eyes and you could see various emotions. Sadness. Anger. Hate. Hate for this world. His sister just died. What was the point of living anymore?

He picked up his black longsword and dragged it to the boss with one hand. Mumbling:"I'll kill you."Over and over again. This was obviously directed at not only the boss, but also Kayaba Akihiko, who started all of this in the first place.

He put his other hand onto the handle of the sword, and the sword started to glow a blood red of rage. Pure rage.Arashi felt his guts boil. Arashi lifted his longsword up into the air over his left shoulder, with the tip tilting to the left. The red sword of rage that was now Arashi's longsword hummed like a broken air conditioner, vibrating too.

Arashi dashed at the boss like lions chasing impalas, he then jumped into the air with a aura of rage and hate. He lined his sword so that it would be completely above his head.

He then slammed his longsword downward. This was the two-handed sword skill -Falling Smite-. Even though that skill should by right do only 470% of base attack damage, this time it oddly but miraculously did enough to one shot the boss.

The boss roared on final time before bursting into particles as Arashi fell onto the ground.Kirito was rightfully shocked at Arashi's suicide move but also grateful that he finished the boss.

A 'Congratulations' sign appeared in the place of the boss, symbolising the defeat of it. A much smaller window materialised before Arashi, stating that he received the last attack bonus.What he obtained was a longsword named 'Demonic Sword Laventinn'. It had a purple handle and hilt with wings protruding out of the hilt and a crimson red blade and a eye with beastly pupils on each side of the guard.

Arashi held Laventinn in his left hand while kneeling down, staring into the eye."Me... rle..."He mumbled." "Hey, Arashi are-" Kirito was held at the neck by Arashi, As Arashi told him in a statement type of talking:"From this day... I don't give a fuck what I have to do... I swear upon my sister... I'll kill that bitch Kayaba Akihiko..."

Kirito felt a radiating sense of fear around Arashi, he felt like cowering in fear and melting away at just the presence of Arashi.

A silence fell upon the circular chamber that was the boss room, and then, a member of the Aincrad Liberation Force spoke in a soft tone:"He's like... A reaper draped in the crimson blood of his foes... A Crimson Reaper."

And that nickname stuck. From then on, Arashi lived his life in Aincrad as the ruthless clearer of the Assault Team known as 'The Crimson Reaper'. And as he swore, he was the one who finished off Kayaba Akihiko, or as he was known as in the game, Heathcliff.

In Heathcliff's final moments, he told Arashi:"I... Apologie for your sister.." Arashi, who was triggered by the mention of his sister, held Heathcliff the same way he did to Kirito,drove the sword further into Heathcliff's heart, and replied in anger and rage:"YOU COULD NEVER BE YOU HEARTLESS DEMON."

With that, all surviving players were logged out of Aincrad, The Floating Castle.

A/N:Hi readers, thanks for sitting through chapter 1 of my fanfic. This is my first fanfic I'm publishing so I'm still new to this system so sorry if I make any mistakes. Anyway, I want to hear your opinions and see your reviews, maybe some constructive criticism too! Anyways, thanks again for picking this up and I'll see you all in the next chapter!


	2. Absolute Sword

-3 years later-

[6 January 2026]

[Asuna's cabin on Floor 22 of New Aincrad]

"Have you heard about Absolute Sword, Arashi?" Lisbeth queried the red haired Salamander known as Arashi the Crimson Reaper.

"Atheletic Horde??" Asuna asked, clearly not hearing the name properly. Arashi facepalmed mentally, he turned to Asuna who was sitting adjacent to him and told her:"She clearly said Absolute Sword, Asuna."

"So anyways, is that a new legendary item they added or something?" Arashi asked Lisbeth, who was lightly chuckilng at Asuna mishearing her.

"Non non. Its a players name, or nickname, I guess. I don't know the actual avatars name to be honest." Lisbeth replied as she shook her right index finger.

Arashi put his right elbow onto the wooden table and rested his chin onto his right hand. And looked at Lisbeth intriguingly." That nickname to me suggests that this 'Absolute Sword' should be a really powerful player.Is Absolute Sword a PKer or something?And how did he or she get that nickname?" Arashi asked Lisbeth again.

"To answer that third question, Absolute Sword was so strong that someone called her that, and the name stuck. 'The sword of absolute invincibility' or something along the lines of that. Also, it's a duelist, not a PKer."

"The sword of absolute invincibility."Arashi repeated to himself. He was even more intrigued by this now.

Since Arashi entered the world of Alfheim Online as a member of the Salamander race, a race mainly focused on brute attack and fire magic casting, he was instantly spotted by SAO veterans who started to play ALO, and the word quickly spread that 'The Crimson Reaper' had entered the land of the fairies. Arashi was still a little displeased at people calling him that but then again that nickname still filled him with pride and regonition.

He had developed a surprisingly good realationship with General Eugene,the leader of the Salamanders, likely because of his skill. Arashi used a longsword in ALO too,called -Humanity-.

It had a golden hilt and guard that shone in moonlight, and a standard looking silver blade Although this was a powerful looking sword, he looked forward to using Laventinn again, which was in not dropped from the Floor 27 boss now.

He still looked for it in every nook and crany in New Aincrad, but all the efforts came out futile, so he could only assume that its was dropped in a higher floor since it was now I legendary class item and if someone got it the MMO news site 'MMO Tommorow' would have already reported about it.

Of course, Arashi too participated in ALO's monthly dueling tournaments, and always seemed to end up on the podium with the likes of people like Asuna and Sakuya, the leader of the Sylph race.

Arashi converted his old SAO avatar into ALO, thus all of his previous stats were maintained in ALO.Along with his -Searching- skill which allowed him to see oncoming and surrounding players.

This skills effects kicked in when Arashi sensed a familiar whiskered info broker leaning on one of the darker areas of the cabin. "Don't even try to hide, Argo."He told the yellow haired Cait Sith.

Out of the shadows, Argo started to approach the Arashi and the others calmly."Nyeheheh,didn't expect you to sense me."Argo mellowed to herself while grinning.

Argo then casually took a seat next to Silica, another member of the Cait Sith,and proceeds to fill Arashi and Asuna in more about the stats of Absolute Sword.

"This Absolute Sword is a Imp who uses a sword that looks more like a rapier to be honest. Her fighting style is similar to Kii-boy's fast paced style and she has a 11-hit Original Sword Skill."

Original Sword Skill. Otherwise known as OSS, was a new system the game managers of ALO implemented with the addition of of skills of SAO, which Arashi was quite pleased with. The OSS system was a function that players to create their own sword skills, and to create one was extremely simple.

But the problem was that you had to be able to move your body at the near superhuman speeds sword skills required without the assistance of the system. So to find a player that could achieve that was extremely rare.

OSS can be passed down using something called a 'Skill Tome', and OSS that had 5 hits or more could be sold at thousands of yrd each.

With Arashi being a former SAO player, his body was already used to fast movement, so he had not much problem creating his 7-hit OSS named -Bloody Scythe-. On top of that, Eugene had thought him his 8-hit OSS -Volcanic Blazer-, making him one of the few players to own not one but two OSS.

But 11 hits? Arashi thought even Kirito, the owner of the -Dual Blades- skill back in SAO, which was rewarded to the player with the fastest reaction time, could not achieve.

"So I assume that she's not a former SAO player."Arashi concluded."But to conclude this, I need to ask if Kirito has fought her."

Leafa, Silica, Lisbeth and Argo all begun to laugh hysterically. Arashi and Asuna started to look at them as if they were crazy.

"Oh, big brother already did, he looked really cool when he lost, though."Leafa replied inbetween fits of laughter.

 _Lost._ The thought of Kirito losing was beyond imaginable to Arashi. Arashi was around the same level as Kirito at the time of Aincrad's collapse and the only person who could beat Kirito was Heathcliff who was secretly the games creator and had the system assistance.

"Was... He fighting hardest?" Asked Asuna. "Nyeheheheheh, I guess Kii-boy wasn't since he didn't use two swords, a idiotic decision on his part, really."Responded Argo.

Asuna understood what Argo said." I guess it's best if he doesn't fight his hardest again. Since he only does that when it's no longer a game."Asuna said.

The entire group nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well,if you have someone that powerful your bound to lose challengers, since even Kirito lost, and he's the strongest player I know."Arashi told the group.

Lisbeth pointed her right index finger at Arashi and told him with closed eyes with a sigh:"The thing is, she's giving a copy of her skill to the first person to beat her."

Arashi tapped his fingers on his left hand onto the table, showing much interest into Absolute Sword."Hey Arashi, how about you challenge her?" Leafa suggested.

Arashi was not taken aback by this. He was on par with Kirito, maybe even slightly stronger, so it made sense for people to ask him to challenge Absolute Sword.

"Uhhhh of course. Sure. I mean, there's no harm in trying." Shrugged Arashi. Asuna then stood up from her seat and said:"I'll challenge too. I want to see Absolute Sword's abilities.I'll use my Undine avatar that I'm using now since I'm more familiar with it."

With that, the group stood up and started to log out, Leafa woke up Kirito who was sleeping near the fireplace.

"Absolute Sword huh, she's a interesting one." Arashi thought out loud. With that, he logged out of the land of the fairies.

A/N:Wow two chapters published in one day what a oddly satisfying feat. Anyway I'll probably upload at least one chapter a weak maybe more if I have enough free time. So anyways thanks for reading and see y'all soon in the next chapter! ~Bl00dh00dz


	3. Too Painful To See

[6 January 2026]

(Arashi/Aiza's P.O.V)

With the blinding white light engulfing me, the virtual me dissappeared from the land of fairies Alfheim Online.

I opened my groggy eyes at a slow pace to adjust to my rooms lighting and stared aimlessly at my white ceiling.

"Absolute Sword huh. She's a interesting one." I then told myself monotonely again. I put both of my hands onto the sides of my Amusphere gently removed it from my head.

As I did that action my black emo styled hair dropped back down onto my head. The ticklish feeling of my hair touching and covering my left eye did the job of reawakening my nerves that were numbed by the Amusphere.

Strangely enough, I could still see using my left eye even though it was covered by my hair... That's odd but that never really bothered me.

I placed the Amusphere on the bedstand beside me on my right and begun to sit up on my bed.I looked up again to my white ceiling and then to my brown door which was again on my right side.

My room was rectangular shaped 4 metres across and 3 metres wide. My bed coloured in different shades of brown,and it was on put at the furthest left of the room, making it oddly squeezey, which was perfect in my opinion.

I walked towards my door and opened it exiting my small room and begun to decend the stairs of the house that I shared with my friends to the first floor.

"How's it going Aiza." The Blonde-haired female, Emi, greeted me. Emi was around the same age as me, she was also a SAO survivor. However unlike me, she was one of the mid level players back in Aincrad, hoping to join the frontlines one day.

"Oh. Hi Emi." I greeted her back,in probably the most bored way possible. I sometimes consider her less of a friend and more a a person I know. I knew that was cruel but that's the reality.

I sat down on the dining table to start eating my dinner, which was just the salad I bought but did not eat yesterday. Once I was done with eating, I washed the plate and sat down on the couch to 'interact' with these people I shared a house with.

Sitting adjacent to me was a blue-haired kendo freak named Aichi. He was the only person who lived here that wasn't a SAO survivor, which was probably the best for him. He was always the over emotional type.

Sitting next to me was Emi and sitting opposite Aichi was Hitomi. A brownette girl with hair that was braided into a fishtail style.

They begun to talk about different stuff that I was obviously not interested in. _Shut the hell_ _up._ I mentally cursed at them. I was ticked by their talking and decided to go back up into my room, leaving the couch silently to avoid them asking why.

(Emi's P.O.V)

I was listening to Aichi brag about his recent kendo achievements when I saw Aiza stand and walk back up the stairs to his room. He had a scowl on his face that resembled him during SAO. Emo, dark, brooding, baisicly someone that's better if you stayed on their good side.

I wanted to approach Aiza to ask him what's wrong but I knew that would be useless,since it's extremely likely he would just tell us to stop asking.

His problems were clearly about his sister dying back in Aincrad. We all lost someone dear to us in there, so we knew the feeling, and that's why we don't talk about it. We don't want to bring back the tears.

(No P.O.V)

Aiza put his head on his table and sighed. He put his hands onto the edge of the table and pushed himself backwards. Since Aiza was on his chair, the wheels beneath it begun to roll him to the back.

He stopped himself by slamming his left leg onto the floor, and then propelled himself to the side of his bed. From there, he got off the chair and knelt down and grabbed a cardboard box under his bed.

The box was no bigger than 1 metre wide and 1 metre wide, yet it contained things too painful for Aiza to see.

On the lid of the box, there was a label, saying :Asami's possessions'. Asami was the real name of Merle, the sister of Aiza.

Before Aiza could take it out fully, he stood up and kicked the box back inone swift move. _Too painful... To see._ Aiza thought.

[7 January 2026]

(Yuuki's P.O.V)

3 months. That was the time left for me to live. 3 months. It's a scary thought, I don't want to leave this world. I haven't left my mark. Well, leaving my mark as in leaving it on the Swordsman Memorial, not any **OTHER** types of mark leaving, duh.

I glanced at my left to look at one of the floating screens and checked the time. "Gee. So quick?" I said to myself. It was already time for me to do the duels.

I have a hunch that today's the day I'll get the one I'm looking for, although my hunches usually aren't correct. But hopefully... Hopefully I can find someone to help me and the Sleeping Knights.

[ **A/N:Hi again and thanks as always for reading. I'm sorry if you feel its a late update my schedule has been packed with Christmas partys. Oh, I almost forgot, Merry Christmas to whoever is reading!! I know it's late but I just want to wish it. Anyway next year is going to be a stressful year for me, so updates may reduce to 2 times per month, so I'm so sorry for that. But I PROMISE that I'll finish this fanfic by maybe July or earlier next year. Anyways... Goodbye for now, and thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!**


	4. The Duel Begins

[7 January 2026]

Floor 24 was largely a water filled level, with cities floating over water similar to the ancient city Atlantis.

The main city on the floor was a man-made island in the center of a massive lake called Panareze,with countless islands surrounding it, kinda like Atlantis itself.

Arashi sat down on one of the grassy hills on Panareze, observeing the festive air of the city. Arashi was still in thought about yesterday, even though he tries to open the box every day, it still is too painful to do.

Arashi tried to find something else to think about,so he thought more about what could possibly be Absolute Sword.

 _She's not a former SAO player, im sure of that. But... Did she convert from some other VRMMO?_ Arashi asked himself.

 _That would explain her crazy high stats. Some VRMMO games alawy leveling to be really easy._

"Arashi!It's time!" Lisbeth shouted at Arashi from a distance. Arashi turned around to see Lisbeth and saw her grabbing Kirito and Asuna's wrists. "Those two being all lovey-dovey again huh." Arashi mumbled to himself.

When they landed on the nameless island that the duels were held on, Arashi observed a giant tree that could be a scaled down model of Yggdrasil,and maybe hundreds of people all assembled in a circle.

Loud cheering could be heard from the crowd, likely due to the duels ongoing. After finding a empty spot in the circle, the group waited for current duel to finish.

Arashi used this time frame to make sure his equipment was fully maxed out and gave him the highest stats that he could have.

Suddenly, a single Salamander player fell from the sky, likely defeated by Absolute Sword. "I give up! I quit! I resign!" He shouted as he waved his sword in the air.

Then, a purple haired female imp with a bandana on her head landed on the grassy patch of the island,sheathing her sword.

 _So that's how Absolute Sword looks like_ Arashi thought. She was rather cute to Arashi."H-hold on!!! You didn't tell me Absolute Sword was a girl!" Asuna screamed in confusion and shock to the rest of the group. "Uhhh,we did." Silica replied.

"O-oh."Asuna sulked at her bad memory.Asuna then came to a sudden realizaton of something" Was that why you lost Kirito? Because she was a girl!?"She scolded Kirito.

" God their a wreck."Arashi commented. Kirito then reasoned his way out of the situation."So... Is there anyone else who wants to duel?" Absolute Sword ask the crowd.

Arashi then walked behind Asuna and pushed her lightly on the back. "Heh sorry Asuna for using you as a learning experience." He said as he did that.

Asuna and Absolute Sword then began their battle. Arashi noticed some observations about Absolute Sword's fighting stlye. Absolute Sword's attack were extremely fast, her normal attacks were as fast as a Sword Skill. But the thing was her attacks were too straightforward. She didn't use any feint or deceptive maneuver. _Strange._ Arashi thought.

 _Then the key to beat her is to throw in something unexpected._ Arashi concluded. Asuna too, came to this conclusion. She used a Martial Arts skill to stun Absolute Sword. The duel continued for awhile more before Asuna lost.

After the duel was over, Arashi approached Absolute Sword and challenged her to a duel. Of course, she gladly accepted. In the duel request, it displaywd her name as Yuuki. _Yuuki huh, nice name I guess_ Arashi thought.

Arashi accepted the duel request and they decided to do it while on the ground.Both swordsmen drew their swords and stood in a stance where their weapons were held vertically.

The countdown slowly ticked down, every tick felt like it took forever to Arashi. Arashi was obviously nervous about this fight. He wasn't soil your pants levels of nervous, but somewhere near there. Why though? Well, Arashi learned this the excruciatingly painful way back in SAO.

No matter how much you stratagise and prepare for a fight, the enemy will almost always have some kind of surprise your not prepared for.

 _3,2,1,START!_ timer started to tick down. Both fighters dashed at each other at incredible speeds and begun their duel.

Arashi first began with a few strikes to Yuuki's left, which was intended to trick her. As she dodged those attacks, Arashi was constantly observeing her, trying to predict her next move.

Just as she was about to dodge Arashi's last blow, Arashi held his longsword up high over his left shoulder. A bright red eye piercing glow emitted from his sword,symboling the start of a sword skill.

The skill Arashi was using was the skill gifted to him by Eugene, -Volcanic Blazer-. He started by a vertical chop and then three slashes in multiple directions. The chop was dodged by Yuuki, but the following slashes were not.

The knock back from the attacks Arashi allowed him a even bigger window for more attack. He slashed three more times, however those were partially blocked by the Yuuki blocking it.

Yuuki then jumped backwards. Luckily, the final hit of - Volcanic Blazer- was a thrust, and Arashi's longsword gave him the reach advantage, so hitting her was really not problem.

Out of the blue, Yuuki's sword glowed a purple similar to her clothes. She then defended herself by parrying the thrust, then attacking Arashi taking advantage of the post skill delay. Arashi felt evey single impact of that four hits.

He felt power and soul in every one of those hits.

 _Five hits, six left._ Arashi mentally noted. Arashi looks up to his top left hand corner to get the status of his HP, which was currently at 63% and dropping at a fair pace.

Next, Yuuki stomped her left leg onto the floor and charged forward planning to land five more hits. That was when Arashi started his own OSS -Bloody Scythe- to counter and finish her off.

His sword glew a stained blood red, with the aura of it similar to that of flowing blood. Arashi then slashed five times at the incoming attacks parrying Yuuki. _One attack left and I'll finish her off._

Wind then started to blow at Yuuki's direction, symbolising a astronomically powerful attack being _charged.This is it._

"HAAAAAAAHH!!" Yuuki screamt with all her remaining might as she thrusted her sword at Arashi one final time to attempt to end the duel. _NOW!_

Arashi then leaped off the ground and jumped about three meters into the air, and was directly above Yuuki. Arashi then increased his speed by tenfold as he slammed down his longsword downwards in a slicing motion with Yuuki as its target.

Without time to finish her skill motion, Yuuki took a glance up at Arashi and saw him slicing downwards at her.

Staying silent, Arashi sliced through Yuuki. Large red slice marks begun to form in place of the areas that Arashi hit Yuuki at. This slice attack took out massive chunks of HP out of Yuuki.

Yuuki's HP bar still had about 20%left,so she could still win, but just as relief begun to set in on Yuuki, Arashi lifted his blade next to his right ear, and started a slashing motion at Yuuki.

Preparing to lose, Yuuki shut her eyes in defeat and satisfaction, she has finally found someone to help her, and without much time left.

 _SHHNK!_ The sound of Arashi's sword cutting through Yuuki's left shoulder and moving down in a vertical direction all the way until stopping at the right side of her waist echoed throughout the silent island, as she bursted into a black and purple flame.

The crowd of onlookers stood at their places silent, they very well knew that there were players stronger than Absolute Sword existed, the way the duel played through, they did not know how to describe it.

Epic? Brutal? Shocking? They were unable to find the words.

 _Haaaahhh... Haaaahhhh..._ _Haaaah_.Arashi panted at a steady pace.He was obviously breathless, he had not used that skill for awhile now. The skill was tailored by him for PvP use,so you would think he would use it often, but nobody has pushed him enough to use it.

He stood up shakily and sheathed his sword. What had he just do.

 **A/N:HAPPPPPPPPYYYYY NEW YEARRRRR-uhh ok by the time I'm uploading this new years day is already over but I just feel I want to wish it to you all. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter and the fight scene. Did I write it well? I hope I did. Also I am writing this based off of the light novel version instead of the anime or manga so yeahhhhhh. Sorry if there's any differences.So y'all can leave comments or constructive criticism (if you want) as always. I may or may not upload next week so I apologise in advance as I will be busy with school since the new school year has officially begun so I apologise again. See you all in the next chapter!**


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